Latest Mason-Dixon Poll shows Romney opening up a 7-point lead over Obama in Florida.

Latest Poll shows Romney opening up a 7-point lead over Obama in Florida

In what can only be described as a near-tectonic shift in such a short time period, the latest Mason-Dixon poll of likely voters in Florida conducted for the Tampa Bay Times/Bay News 9/Miami Herald has Mitt Romney surging ahead of President Barack Obama 51-44 with 4% undecided. Last month’s survey had Obama up by a point 48-47!

Among the notable result categories, the Romney ticket holds a 17-point edge among men, whereas Obama is only up by two points among women.

An ongoing battleground is the Hispanic vote, which is surprisingly only showing a two point lead for Obama (46-44), with a whopping 10% still undecided. Cuban-American voters who largely vote Republican (they have already seen what “Hope and Change” can do to a country) aside, we are certain that sensible, hard-working Hispanic families pursuing the American dream are conflicted between their rational understanding of the economic benefits that would occur if Romney is elected and the unrelenting onslaught of Romney-bashing ads specifically targeting their community and young Hispanic voters in particular.

Also very interesting is that 14% of registered Democrats say they will vote for Romney, whereas only 4% of Republicans say they will cross over for Obama. This statistic is undoubtedly related in large part to the Jewish vote, for two reasons. There are still quite a few Jewish voters who remain as registered Democrats, but have not voted for a Democrat in the Presidential or even other Federal elections in years, if not decades. Of equal if not greater import is that many Jewish Democrats, who may have no intention of switching their partisan allegiance, will nevertheless vote against Obama because of abhorrent posture toward Israel and its leadership.

Finally, Romney enjoys a substantial lead (52-39) among independents, with only 6% undecided in that category. (Three percent apparently prefer Ron Paul.)